*disclaimer: this post is written from a Canadian perspective, where the availability and laws about coupon use and bulk purchasing are different than in the United States.

Savvy Shopper. Coupon Clipper. There are many names today for people who follow a movement of extreme shopping.

The concept is fairly simple: keep track of items that your family uses and when they go on sale, purchase them in bulk, typically using coupons to decrease the final price. I myself used to subscribe to this mentality and would look for coupons in the weekly papers, magazines, and online.

I enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and when I finally got some items 80-100% off (yes, for free), it felt like I was making a difference towards my family’s spending and I enjoyed doing it. That is, until we started adopting a more minimalist lifestyle. Suddenly, having 10 bottles of shampoo in the closet didn’t feel so satisfying.

And so, I’ve changed how I shop and I’m here to share with you the seven ways that stockpiling can be wasteful and how I’ve changed my shopping habits to suit a more minimalist lifestyle.

Blogging can be a stressful venture. You’re constantly trying to create original, creative content that makes a splash in the virtual information ocean. On top of that, your always wanting more people to “subscribe” whether to your e-mail newsletter, your blog content, or your YouTube channel (shameless plug here)

Early on in our blogging (though I still feel a year into it that we are very much newbies) every new e-mail subscription brought a tiny thrill of excitement. Whether it was because our message was resonating with people, or because they just loved receiving e-mail was of no significance to me.

On the flip side, every un-subscription notice came as a slight jab. What didn’t they like? Did we say something offensive? Would we change our content to get people to like us more, or stick to what we believed even if nobody agreed?

It begins with shopping places that have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers markets, local grocery stores, and even community gardens are great sources. Loading up on greens will ensure that a majority of your diet is healthy and you will be more able to get all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy.

If you go to a grocery store regularly, try to shop the outer aisles (where the fresh stuff is) first. Avoid processed foods as much as is possible and buy things with the least amount of ingredients necessary.

We don’t meal plan often, but I do have a few simple, standard meals that I often prepare. We eat 95% of our meals at home, so we are better able to control the quality and type of ingredients that we are eating.

It isn’t about eating “perfectly”, but focusing on whole, natural foods.

In this minimalist toddler closet tour, you’ll get a look into our two-year-old son’s closet. His wardrobe is relatively limited, and this amount of clothing works well for us to be able to give him enough outfits, as well as not be bombarded by laundry. We also have a bookshelf with a few books and toys on it that he can easily access as well as clean up by himself. Keeping a simple closet can be a challenge with children, but play around with different configurations to see what works best for you. Let us know in the comments any tips you’ll incorporate into your closets, as well as something different that you might do.

We are woken up by our alarms, digital or living, and then we proceed to shake the haze that is morning. We wash our face, dress for the day’s activities, eat some kind of breakfast or drink our life-sustaining beverage of choice and head out the door.

From here we interact with many different people, some of whom are predictable and others unanticipated. Most of the interactions are cordial at best, covering only the deepest level of interaction necessary to propel us forward to our next assignment for the day.

After filming my video on mindful eating, I wanted to take one day to film or photograph all of the food I ate in an effort to be more mindful. I also ate all of my meals and snacks sitting at our kitchen table, where we eat a majority of our meals.

As you can see, eating mindfully doesn’t mean eating in solitude. My family was around for most of the meals (and my son was there for the meals I didn’t post video of) and we enjoyed conversation and time connecting together. Eating with other people can definitely be a practice in mindfulness if conscious attention is being paid to your food and the sensations that are connected with it.

Do you practice any aspects of mindful eating? Share with me what you do, when you eat or things that you’d like to change to be more mindful. It is a process for me to be aware of the food I’m eating and to stay connected to the experience.

The other night while watching some playoff hockey, JF and I saw an advertisement for a game show called “Canada’s Smartest Person”. I haven’t seen the show so I can only presume it is a trivia and challenge show intended to test different types of intelligence, the prize being both money and bragging rights of being deemed the “smartest” (by a Canadian game show anyways, but that fact might remain unsaid).

Mornings with kids are tough. Especially when one of your kids isn’t a morning person and she has to be on the bus to school for 7:40am. Last week was particularly difficult. Every morning since Monday, the very first words out of our daughter’t mouth were: “Is it the fin-de-semaine [weekend] yet?” With which I had to reply with a sympathetic, “No, sweetie. It’s Monday” and again with each day of the week thereafter.

Thursday night, out of the earshot of the kids, JF and I said that we would keep her home Friday so that she could get some rest and then we could all sleep in (7am, lets be realistic here). So, we settle in Thursday night hoping for a long, restful sleep.